Tangled Hoop

I absolutely love Tangled, and it has fast become one of my favourite Disney films! Who could fail to love a film with a sword fighting horse, magical hair and a hilarious chameleon! I've wanted to make something Tangled themed for my ever growing hoopla wall for quite a while now and have had this one planned since before Christmas. I always loved the sun symbol you see all throughout the film, and this hoop is based on the purple flag Rapunzel has with it on.

I'm pretty sure it's framed in a 12" hoop. I started by wrapping some purple ribbon around the outside ring of the hoop, and left enough at the top to hang it with. I then pulled some purple satin material taught across the hoop, making sure it was totally flat and nice and tight. I found an image of the design online, printed it out and then cut out two of the suns rays to use as templates. Using the lens cap from a telescope a traced out a circle onto some yellow felt and then pinned the two paper templates onto more felt and traced around them. The larger rays are made using the same felt as the circle, whilst the smaller ones are from a slightly brighter shade of yellow felt. Once all the shapes were cut out I then pinned them all onto the hoop.

All the felt was then stitched down using two strands of thread. Once they were all stitched down, I couched some sparkly Russian gold braid in a swirl in the centre of the sun. I thought this would a bit more sparkle to the hoop. I love how the hoop turned out and is already hanging up on my hoopla wall :) I think it only took a couple of hours to stitch up one evening, and was the first piece I completed from my '50 Projects 2012' blog.

Thanks for reading, Vicki x

Tinkerbell Mini Cushions

Hii. So yet more Disney stitchery is appearing on my blog!! My friends granddaughter loves Tinkerbell and the first cushion was made for her. As she is quite young I didn't want to make something and just frame it, so thought a cushion would be a bit more fun and colourful.

I found the pattern on ebay and loved it and made up the pattern for the 'R'. After I finished the cross stitch I mounted it onto a piece of felt. As I can never leave the reverse side of my work blank, I stitched her name onto the back and added some sequins for a bit of extra sparkle. I then blanket stitched the two pieces of felt together. The cushion is stuffed with toy filling.

So, immediately after I finished this one and posted on my facebook, I was asked to make another one!! My Aunt commissioned me to make one for my cousin, who also loves Tinekrbell. I changed the colours of the flowers for this one, as I don't like to make things that are exactly the same. Charted out an 'M' for the front as well.

This cushion was then put together in the same way as the first. As it was a Christmas present I was asked to stitch 'Xmas 2011' into the back. They were actually pretty quick to stitch up and a fun pattern to do :)

Here's a close up shot of the first design so you can see all the details -

Thanks for reading, Vicki xx

More Disney Stitchery

So, I am *very* annoyed that I couldn't get to London this weekend to see Rapunzel get officially recognized as a Disney Princess. Really wanted to watch the parade :D :D Instead, I spent my morning sorting through loads of pictures and found all my Disney related crafts!! I've been really busy with loads of commissions and the likes recently so thought I should finally get around to updated the blog!!

I've been working at the Disney store for over a year now and since I've been there a few good friends have left for other jobs. The other girl who started at the same time as I did is leaving this week, which I was actually pretty sad about!! So I wanted to make her a goodbye card. I know she loves Belle and Beauty and the Beast and I found this colouring page of her online. I traced the pattern onto some cotton fabric then stitched around it with two strands of thread using back stitch. There's a bit a of satin stitch on her eyes and lips as well. I crayon tinted certain parts for a bit more colour, and then added some ribbon roses to her bouquet :)

This was another leaving card I made a colleague. I found a silhouette picture of Mickey Mouse and turned it into a cross stitch pattern KG Stitch. Stitched on 14 count white aida and mounted on some red paper before being stuck onto the card.

I made this Minnie card when my manager moved stores. I found the design online and stitched it onto 14 count aida also. I added some beads, as well as a ribbon bow.

As well as the card I also made her a framed piece. I found images of the Disney logo and Mickey Mouse and turned them into cross stitch patterns by using KG Stitch. I love this program - so easy to use!! I them put both the images together to create this -

And the last bit of Disney stitching I found was this Nightmare Before Christmas keyring I made. My friend loves Jack Skellington so for her birthday I made her this keyring out of felt :)

I'm sure there will be many more Disney themed stitchings on here :D :D

Thanks for reading, V x

Hoop Extravaganza!!!

Soooo, I've been totally obsessing about hoop art recently and managed to purchase a large selection of hoops on ebay. I quickly started planning out what I wanted to do with them all.

I had a pretty bad day the other, one of those days where everything that could go wrong, went dramatically wrong. I decided that instead of being miserable I would stitch out the negativity in a bid to improve my mood!! Worked out pretty well to be honest lol :P Here is what I came up with:

Summed up my mood pretty well, and was a good way of using up loads of bits of left over thread that I had lying around. For the text I used the font generator on this website - http://www.stitchpoint.com/eng/tool/alph/cross-stitch-writing-tool.php

I've been wanting to stitch up something Emperor's New Groove related for a while now. I absolutely love this film. Most definitely one of my all time favourite Disney creations. Kuzco and Yzma totally crack me up throughout the entire film. Too funny. Anyways, I found some Emperor's New Groove colouring pages online, and thought that this one would make a good embroidery pattern.

I love him!!! Stitched up one of my favourite quotes from the film, using the colours of the text on the film cover.

Next I decided to add some Pagan themed hoops to my growing hoopla collection. I found a Goddess pattern I liked on Urban Threads (http://www.urbanthreads.com/) and stitched up using split stitch for the outline, and backstitch for the swirls in the centre. I then added a bit of crayon tinting around the edge of the hoop for more colour.

To go with the Goddess hoop I made a Green Man one. This pattern is from Aimee Ray's awesome awesome Doodle Stitching Motifs book (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doodle-Stitching-Collection-Aimee-Ray/dp/1600595812), which I am totally in love with at the moment. Done in two strands of different coloured green thread. Used some crayon tinting here too.

Thanks for looking, V x

Under the Sea.

So, I have wanted to make a mermaid/ocean themed bit of stitching for quite a while now and had never quite found any patterns I liked before. I stumbled across Sublime Stitching - http://www.sublimestitching.com/ and the mermaid pattern they had and loved it!!

I decided that I didn't want it to be just a mermaid though, and started thinking up a total under water scene. I recently discovered Aimee Ray's (http://dreamfollow.com/) wonderful Doodle Stitching books. I absolutely love the Motif Collection book, so many fabulous little designs!! All the other sea creatures and waves are images from that book.

So after I traced all those motifs onto the fabric (which was the remains of an old bed sheet that was cut up to make costume patterns) I added some freehand bits of seaweed. Then the stitching began!! Most is just back stitch using two strands of thread, with some satin stitch also. Wanted to try and improve some of my embroidery techniques and this was the perfect oppurtunity to practise my satin stitch. Naturally, working for Disney, the mermaid took on the colours of Ariel, and then the whole thing started to go down a Little Mermaid theme. Well why not?! Ariel is a pretty awesome Disney Princess after all!! So I added my interpretation of Flounder and Sebastian, and no Little Mermaid themed stitchery would be complete without a dinglehopper!!

After the stitching was complete I thought it lacked a bit of colour so decided to crayon tint certain parts to make it a bit brighter. I covered Ariel's tail in sequins and added some to the waves to add a bit of sparkle to the whole thing. I then framed it in the hoop, after wrapping some blue ribbon around it as the hoop was a boring pale pinkish colour. I've been admiring the many amazing hoops on Craftster (www.craftster.org) for a while now and thought this would make a good addition to the start of my own hoopla wall. Here be the finished article -

Can't wait for it to go up on the wall now!! Nice to work with lots of colour for a change :D :D Thanks for reading, V x